Help from Grandpa...

So I haven't posted in two years. And I'm sorry to say that if you are reading this to see what's going on in the family or something, sorry. I'm actually just posting here so there's an easier way for us to show grandpa our bird pictures for Livvy's science fair project. SORRY. Maybe someday I'll be better at posting on the blog...

Ok, so here are the pics we need help with:

We're thinking the bird at the top is maybe another flicker? or a really fat robin? or something else? And the other birds on the branches below are females?

This is in a different place, different day, but is it the same kind of bird? it looks round chested like the other ones but without the orange-y color. We also saw some small grey birds with a black mask, kind of like a chickadee. We can't find our bird book, so I couldn't check when we were there. I'm also pretty sure we saw a blue jay and some sparrows of some sort. And we've also seen magpies and blackbirds or crows (what's the difference?) And tons of quail.

Now I know this isn't a great shot, but we were super far away so this was as close as our camera could zoom. We think this is some kind of hawk, and we're guessing maybe a marsh hawk since this was taken out by the river. What do you think?

And again, it was far away, but we think this is a kestrel? A small hawk, right? It was just hanging out on the fence post out there by a farm over by the river.

And then we found a tree with all of these hanging birds nests and we were wondering what kind of bird would make them?

Thanks for your help, Boppa! Just email me if you want, or you can call when you have a minute. Love you lots!

Rylie's Preschool Graduation

Rylie was so excited to graduate from preschool on Thursday (May 25) - she's such a big girl. They sang songs that they had learned all year long, and they showed us their drawings of what they want to be when they grow up. Rylie wants to be a princess. (Surprise! Surprise!) She loved Teacher Tracey and seeing her friends at preschool, but she is SO excited to go to BYU Kindergarten next year. (And we are, too!)

Here she is, receiving her "diploma" from Teacher Tracey.

That tassel was in her face through the whole program.

Chee-eese!

A visit to Temple Square

We had fun taking a little trip up to Salt Lake City last weekend. Dan was finally home for a weekend, after five straight saturdays on the road, and we had a great family day. We had a picnic by the fountains and walked through Temple Square. We saw all of the children's artwork in the Church History Musuem, and then played in a fun Book of Mormon exhibit. It was a beautiful day, which we haven't had too many of lately, it seems, so it was really just a great day.

Rylie has always loved to pose - I guess she's choosing the "little angel" pose here.

And Olivia thought it was hilarious to tease Tate while we were trying to take the pictures. She was laughing pretty hard through the whole attempt.

And naturally we had some wet hands and feet after sitting by the reflecting pond here. No matter how breezy it was outside, they could not stay out of the water!

Cute little Taters kept singing "I love to see the temple" while we were sitting here so I had to get a picture of that!

And here the girls were trying their best to look like saints or angels or something.

That's Tate. Just chillin. Like usual.

The snowball fight.

Here is a short video of the snow fun in our front yard. I hope it works. :)

The first post of 2011 in APRIL?! Sorry, folks...

So it's kind of daunting looking at a blog that hasn't been updated in about 8 months, but I know I need to do it. I want to do it! We'll see if we can get this updated more often, but as for now, let me just get the basic details of our lives down.

We moved back to Provo right around New Year's, and the first four months in our new house have been wonderful. We have great land lords and we're close to school and church and everything we need. Plus the house has a basement! So we have room for the kids to play and they love it and we love it. We miss Athens, especially now when it *should be springtime here. We had such wonderful friends in Georgia and such a great ward. We'll have to go back to visit soon.

I haven't taken very many pictures, but we did get out into the snow in the front yard several times, so that's what I've posted pictures of here. And I promise to try to get more up soon. (Do I end every post with that promise? Probably so. Sorry, family!)

Love to you all.

Olivia vs. The Monkey Bars

The weather has started to cool off here, at least in the mornings, and so we thought we'd take advantage of sunny and 80s and meet some friends at the park. We hadn't been there 5 minutes when Olivia came to me crying (followed by several adults, which made me nervous) and saying her arm hurt. As soon as I looked at her arm, I knew we were headed to the hospital. There was a "dip" in her forearm, above the wrist, and it just didn't look right. The adults who'd seen it said she lost her grip on the monkey bars and fell, and they heard a popping noise. Poor girl.

So I left Tucker and Rylie at the park with Amber and Shauna (and all of their kids too, of course) and headed to the hospital. Unfortunately, we were leaving the park downtown in the middle of gameday traffic. I pulled to the side of the road when I saw a police officer directing traffic and he rigged the stoplight for us and we headed to the hospital. Luckily, Bro. Dunford was working in the ER today, so we got in to see a familiar face. Both he and the nurses were all impressed with how brave and cheerful Olivia was for enduring a broken arm. She got a temporary cast and we'll head back to the doctor some time on Monday to get a permanent one. Do they make waterproof casts these days? I surely hope so. The plastic bag on her arm during the bath tonight was cumbersome...

She really did great, all things considered, and by this evening she was playing with the kids outside - a little quieter and more careful, but playing all the same. And now she's sleeping her first night with a ginormous left arm.

What a day. Of course, I told myself. Of course we have a broken limb to add to a house that won't sell and a dad that lives far away...

But then I got phone calls from both women taking care of my children, then phone calls from each of my visiting teachers, then dinner and happy conversation with a dear friend...Of course. Of course, I reminded myself, my wonderful ward and good friends will always be here to help me, and my Heavenly Father will never forget about me.

Rylie's Birthday

We had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa's house! We went to Aiken's Makin' and the kids got balloons and cotton candy (which they decided wasn't nearly as delicious as they had dreamed it would be.) Then we went miniature golfing. Rylie couldn't be persuaded to place the ball anywhere but a few inches from the hole each time, so we got to see a fabulous hole-in-one-victory dance at every hole. :) Tate was proud to have his own ball and club, and Tucker was proud to be golfing with Grandpa and Uncle Q. Olivia remained surprisingly calm through the frustrations of mini golf, and eventually decided it was more fun to experiment with rolling the ball, rather than focus on "the rules." Good job, Livvy.

Then there was a super fun trip to Burger King and opening presents back at the house. We tried to take video of the present-opening, but it was too dark in the house and the camera was doing some strange things, so we didn't get video of that.

But we took some videos of other parts of the day, hope you enjoy them honey!

This one's for dad...

A tale of 2 Sundays!

You want to talk about contrasting Sundays for me (this is Dan by the way), let's look at Feb. 14 and Feb. 21, 2010.

Feb. 14: Returned from the worst trip I've had since coming to UGA. Got home around 2pm and still had not received my luggage the whole weekend. It had snowed several inches the day before and was still cold with quite a bit of snow on the ground. Tucker thought it would be fun to have a snowball fight and how could I pass that up. It was so fun to throw real snowballs and just play. Shell and I shared Valentine's, she made a sweet card and I had mailed mine on the day I left being sure it would surprise her and get there before Valentine's Day but the weather did me in and it didn't arrive in time. My bag finally arrived at 9:15pm and it was nice to finally have all belongings back. It was a fitting end to a long week! The week ahead would require buying a new car and playing catchup at work.

Feb. 21: What a difference a week makes! We bought a new car and then the weather decided to turn good. It was 70 degrees outside today and blue skies. We grilled out with Shell's parents who were visiting and played outside most of the afternoon. Shell's brother Cam and his wife Kym are on hiatus from the Peace Corps in Ghana for the wedding of Kym's sister and they have come to visit for a couple of days. It's amazing what a little sunshine and warm weather can do for you!

We're doing well and are looking forward to the coming Spring! Check out our picasweb link for pics.

Well here we are at he end of January and once again we haven't been on here to post anything new. It's me, Dan, back again for another round of updates at the end of the month. Here goes:

School started back up for the kids on January 5th and at UGA on January 7th. After an enjoyable couple of weeks off it was nice to get everyone back into some semblance of a normal routine. The kids are enjoying school and learning a lot of new things each day. Shell has picked up another evening class on Mondays and Wednesdays which has caused us to have to be much more on the ball. It seems like Monday-Wednesday just flies by because we are so busy but we're managing.

With the new year brings the onset of indoor track. We had our first meet in mid January at Lexington, KY and followed that up the following week in Blacksburg, VA. The team is performing well and so far we've kept injuries to a minimum. This period from January to June is very busy with travel to meets as well as hosting some in April and May. It puts a lot of strain on the family at times but we do our best to spend as much time together as possible and enjoy those times.

Tucker is playing basketball at a local church league and is really enjoying it. We were driving home from practice the other night and he says "I really like playing basketball games Dad. They're really fun." He's a great defender but needs to work on his rebounding, passing, and shooting skills. It's fun to watch him enjoy the great game of basketball.

Olivia is doing gymnastics every Tuesday. She loves to tumble and just be active. Rylie isn't quite old enough to join the classes yet, which she doesn't like, but she'll be there soon enough. They both love to dance around and be crazy.

Shell is adjusting to a more demanding teaching load along with her Young Women's responsibilities every Tuesday night. She says that neither of her classes have really clicked yet which makes it hard to have really good discussions. We're hoping that changes soon. We celebrated Shell's birthday on January 24th, we had a nice day.

We had to say goodbye to our green 2001 Honda Odyssey after Shell got into an accident on the 21st. The car treated us well and we will miss it. Our insurance company has been great throughout this process and now we just need to find a replacement for the van. Not exactly what we were planning on doing but not much we can do about it now. Just one of those fun curveballs that life throws at you sometimes.

We just spent the weekend in Greenville, SC at Shell's sister's house to celebrate the 1st birthday of our niece Campbell. It was in the midst of a snow/ice storm on Friday night which made it cold and slippery. The kids enjoyed playing with the "snow" and icicles. It's nice to be close to Shell's siblings and parents and spend times like these with them. It reminds me of just how important family is. It's so fun to watch our kids play with their cousin and their aunt & uncles and Grandma & Grandpa.

Well if I forgot anything I hope Shell will get on and fill in what I've missed. Check our picasaweb link for a lot more in the way of pictures. I've put a few here and some video clips, I hope you enjoy.

Happy New Year!

It's been awhile since our last update, sorry about that. You're stuck with me, Dan, this time around so it may not be quite as eloquent as Shell writes.

We spent Thanksgiving at The Tuckfields in Aiken, SC. We had a very nice weekend and it was good to get out of Athens for a few days. I love Thanksgiving...great food, good company, and plenty of football. After Thanksgiving Shell finished teaching out the rest of her semester and I finished practices until our semester ended. Tucker and Olivia had school up thru Dec. 18th so we stuck around town for a bit. Shell and I celebrated our 10th Anniversary on Dec. 18th by going to one of our favorite local restaurants, Brett's, and then went out Christmas shopping. A special thanks to Shell's visiting teachers who took care of our kids that night.

We made it to Aiken, SC on the 21st for the Christmas Break. The kids were very excited to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We played at the park and outside the first couple of days along with enjoying some good football games, Go Cougars!, at night. The kids were very excited to see what Santa would bring. Olivia wanted a dalmatian Rescue Swim to Me Puppy, Rylie wanted a soap and suds Dora the Explorer, and Tucker wanted a lego bionicle. We put several presents under the tree on the 24th and they were so fun to watch as they explored, picked up and shook, and tried to guess what was there.

Christmas morning came and Tucker was up by 7am but the girls kept sleeping. All the adults made it up before they did. We finally got rolling opening gifts around 8am and the kiddos were so excited as we handed out everyone's gifts. We then started opening and they were all so happy with what their family and Santa got them. Santa brought Olivia her puppy toy, Rylie her Dora, and Tucker his bionicle. Tate was rather oblivious.




Santa did have one surprise gift for the whole family...a Nintendo Wii. Tucker just about lost it, he even commented "I almost passed out!" and "What if this is all a dream?" and kept saying he couldn't believe Santa brought us a Wii. He is so expressive when he's excited...it's hilarious. So the kids were so happy and Mom and Dad were very relieved and excited for the kids. It was a lot of fun.



Of course things weren't all hunky dory...I came down with Pneumonia and was pretty much worthless from late on Christmas day through the following Tuesday. It's a first for me and not very pleasant but I am doing much better thanks to antibiotics and cough syrup.

Shell's brother returned from his LDS mission to Las Vegas on Dec. 29th and it was such a great experience to see him come home. He had a great 2 years and looks ready to tackle the world. He won't be home long before heading to BYU-Idaho this next week.


We are heading home tomorrow and back to the grind. My busy time of year with track & field is here and Shell is going to be teaching 2 night classes this semester. It's going to be a challenge but we know we can do it. Any extra prayers sent our way would be appreciated. Here's hoping you all have a Happy New Year and we wish you all the best. We hope to be able to see some family and friends we haven't seen in awhile this year...we'll keep our fingers crossed.
* for more pics check out our picasaweb link

Fun family times...

In the new album on our picasa site are pictures of the fun things we've done together as a family recently.

The first bunch of pictures come from our trip to Watson Mill Covered Bridge State Park, where we went for a picnic and nature walk on Columbus Day. It was nice to have the day off as a family, and it's fun to have so many beautiful parks around us here in Athens. We drove to the bridge and had a picnic and then wandered down by the river (not sure which one...) to play in the sticks and leaves. We took a little nature walk and collected leaves (Rylie kept finding "so many oak leaf-es!") and rubbed our fingers over lots of spongy moss. We weren't hiking for too long when Olivia had collected more leaves than she could carry and when mom wouldn't help her carry any more, she exclaimed, "Oh man! I wish we never even went on this stupid nature walk!" We had to call uncle Chandler and tell him his legacy for nature-walk-frustration lives on. It was beautiful and fun to be together.

Then for Halloween we had a super fun party at our friends, the Vess's house. They have a nice safe neighborhood for trick or treating, with the homes close together and a perfect sized block for walking. The kids were just about exhausted with only two or so homes left, so we timed it just right. Also, the rains came just before we made it back home. :)

As you can see from the pictures, Tucker and Olivia were Harry Potter and Hermione Granger and they looked adorable. Some other friends of ours had a lathe in their garage, and offered to make them each their own "authentic" magic wands - the kids even got to pick out their own styles. Then I made them some black Hogwarts robes with little Gryffindor patches. Tucker had his (adorable!) glasses and a scar, and we braided Livvy's hair the night before so it would be poofy and wavy. They looked perfect! And they "expecto-patronum-ed" their way down the street all evening. And for some reason Rylie had her heart set on being a girl dragon, and she loved curling up her fingers and roaring all night long. They were so proud of how much candy they got. In fact, Tucker said his bag was so heavy it felt like it was full of lead! (and then, to explain to all the other younger children, he stated, "Lead is actually a very heavy substance.") It was a great night.

And then the last bunch of pictures on the album are from Rylie's recent "gobble gobble surprise party"/thanksgiving

feast she had at her preschool. Dan and Tate and I got to go see her sing some songs and then we ate turkey and chicken nuggets together for lunch. She was super proud of her pilgrim hat and the handprint turkey she had made. And it was nice for us to do something special with just Rylie.

And now we're headed to South Carolina for Thanksgiving, where I hope to take lots more fun pictures (and maybe actually post them before Christmas...) I'm so grateful for this time of year, when we stop and think about all of the blessings we have. And chances are, if you're reading this, you're one of those blessings!

Where did September go?

Well it's the last day of September and we've had a busy month. Shell is teaching class tonight so it's up to me to fill everyone in on the Graham Clan in Athens, GA.

School has kept everyone busy. Tucker and Olivia are really enjoying school. Tucker is learning about the phases of the moon right now as well as working on a powerpoint project for his class. He loves reading, especially at night in bed. Now if we could get him to enjoy doing his homework as much as he enjoys the reading part. Olivia is just so bubbly and energetic. I take her into class everyday and it's so fun to watch her interact with her friends as she walks through the halls and into class. It's one of the highlights to my day. Rylie is at pre-school on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and she is adjusting to that and gets a little nervous before she gets to class but she loves to talk about her day when I get home. She is painting animals and school buses as well as making new friends. It's so fun to watch them mature and grow.

Tate is just a happy little guy most of the time. He sleeps great, eats great, and really only gets fussy if he gets something that doesn't agree with his tummy. He's rounded out and is rolling over and popping up on his hands. He has a great little laugh that is just infectious.

We celebrated 2 birthdays. Rylie's was on the 12th and she wanted to go swimming for her birthday so we went to the YMCA pool and had a fun morning. She got some really fun presents as well. I think her favorite was the singing "Barbie & the Diamond Castle" with the accompanying DVD as well as the same dress-up dress and dress-up shoes. She loves to watch the movie and, needless to say, the songs get stuck in everyone's head (which isn't always a good thing). She enjoyed the cards and gifts from the rest of the family very much. As for the other birthday...well I hit 34 on the 27th. Seemed like just another day but I was very appreciative of the cards, messages, and phone calls.

Life has been busy. From the kids school and gymnastics to Mom's teaching class and volunteer help at school and with friends to my work...we hardly see each other for too long some days. We were so busy that the grass grew from all the rain into a mini-jungle, the kids thought it was great, but our lawnmower was broken so I wasn't sure what to do. A kind neighbor friend came over and used his riding mower to purge us of the grass, a much needed act of service. We are so blessed though to have a roof over our heads, food to eat, and clothes on our backs. The Lord has done so much for us and we are so grateful. We have some challenges lying ahead in the next few months but are confident that we can meet them head-on and pass through unscathed.

Well I've rambled enough. Be back soon. Check our picasa link for pictures.

First days of school

We haven't had much time since school started to get posting information, but so far school is going really well for the kids. Tucker loves his new class, especially the Thursday "science enrichment" class. Olivia is enjoying class now, after a bit of a rough start to kindergarten. And Rylie just adores preschool, and being a big girl. She goes two days a week, and we're all glad she gets to go. :)

Our visit to the aquarium

We had a ton of fun at the aquarium for our last family summer activity. It was a busy day, but the kids were so excited. It was jam packed, so with three little kids running around and two parents pushing a stroller, we were a tight fit in the different exhibits, but it was worth the wait. Tucker and Olivia and Rylie were even brave enough to touch some rays and shrimp! I love days when we get to spend time with the family, all together. :) (Check the picasa site for lots more pictures!)

She was listening!

Rylie is a crazy horse during FHE (well, all the time, but especially during FHE.) But today we were driving home from her preschool open house (just me and rylie and tate in the car) and we were listening to music. And from the back seat, I hear her little voice, "Mom?" So I said, "Yes, Rylie?" And she replies, "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded."

My heart melted. What a sweet thing to say, and to know that she was listening to our lesson on Monday (we're memorizing 1 Nephi 3:7 as a family)...I just wish I knew what was going through her mind the minute before she spoke up. These are the moments I just adore, as a mother. :)

Edisto, '09

I haven't had a chance to post about all of our other vacations, but since Cam and Kym are getting the internet in Africa today, I wanted to take a quick moment and update you all on our trip to Edisto. We had a great few days at the beach. The weather was gorgeous, though we did have a small little storm on Friday night. We played games and ate way too many snacks way too late at night. And it was fun to see baby Campbell play in her little pool and splash around. Tucker and Olivia and Rylie made friends with the family that set up their beach stuff right next to ours, which meant that the kids were busy all day long, riding waves together, building a sand castle home for the "herman crab," and sharing popsicles. Tate was an angel baby (which he pretty much has been all summer long) and he slept the whole time out on the beach, in his stroller under the tent. We missed the rest of the family - couldn't believe that just last year we had Cam and Kym with us, and Tyler and Brittany... Big hugs to all the family - I'll write more soon!

Olivia's prayer...

It's been a busy month, and it's only going to get busier. I haven't got time to write much, but I realized that I need to be better about writing down the sweet (and funny, and frustrating) moments of my life with little ones. 

And so, just quickly, I want to say that we've had a rough time lately since our friends Ryan and Amber (and their kids, Aubrie and Robbie and Hallie) moved away. (They lived right down the street from us.) Olivia and Aubrie were best friends, and she has been so sad. We went to grandma's house this weekend, though, for my little brother's graduation, and I thought she would be over some of the mopey-ness we've had lately. But then tonight I was helping her with her prayers before bed, and she asked Heavenly Father, "...and please bless Aubrie that she won't be lonely. I really want her to be happy in her new home." She took some time thinking about it as she said it and I realized that for all of my frustrations with her teenager-in-a-four-year-old-body attitude, there are such precious moments like these. I'm so thankful that she has faith that Heavenly Father hears her prayers and can help her, and her friends, feel better. And I'm thankful that she shared that little testimony with me tonight.

More pics

So I hope I'm not too late in posting this, I wanted Cam and Kym to see all of these new pictures! We've got new pics on the picasa site - some of Lindsay and John's visit with baby Campbell, and lots of the kids giving Tate hugs. It's been a busy two weeks, and though I knew life was going to be crazy, I think you can never really be "prepared" fully for the changes a new little baby brings. I want to post more soon. Just gotta make it through grading finals...  :)

Tate Richard Graham born on April 21, 2009

Tate showed up a couple of weeks earlier than expected but is doing well and so is Mom. He weighed in at 6 lbs. 14 oz. and is 19 1/4 inches long. We'll get a more updated an informative entry in later this week but just wanted to let everyone know. Please click on our picture link to see photos.